This last struck me not as a neat trick but an amazing luxury. Why? Having reported on prison issues for the past four years, I’ve heard one recurring refrain from women prisoners: There are never enough feminine hygiene products to go around.

In many facilities, women must buy pads or tampons from the prison commissary, sometimes waiting a week or more for their supplies to arrive. Women without external contacts to send them cash are out of luck.

The hygiene-product shortage amounts to far more than an annoying inconvenience. Women described to me the discomfort and smell, especially in the summer, of living in close quarters with other women who are often menstruating simultaneously.

Since the advent of the recession, budget cuts at prisons often hit women-specific services first, and “fringe” benefits like feminine hygiene products are some of the first to go.

“Tampons are $5.00 and pads are around $3.20,” Vicki Rosepiler, a prisoner at Danbury Federal Medium Security Prison, told me. “You can get five free pads per week and three rolls of toilet paper, but that is the extent of help with hygiene. This was not the case 10 years ago.”

Susan Jenkins, who spent a week in Riverside Womens Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, told me that the shortage often causes tension among women.

When I was moved after the required quarantine period for testing for TB, I was approached by a few women asking for pads. My cellmates told me to keep them for myself and that the women always approach the new arrivals.

Creative solutions abound: Women described learning the best techniques for molding tampons and pads out of toilet paper (using as little of it as possible, since TP is also rationed). But sometimes guards won’t allow use of the homemade kind. Earleen, the mom of a prisoner at West Valley Detention Center in California, told me,

They are given three pads for their period … some of the women have had to have homemade ones made from toilet paper removed.

At some facilities, there are no giveaways at all. “The women have to buy their personal hygiene,” Patricia Williams in the Victorville, California federal prison to me. “If you don’t have any funds… Oh wellllllllll.”

Pads and tampons should not be viewed as fringe benefits, luxuries deserved only by prisoners with cash to spare. Regardless of budget cuts, prisons must maintain a certain basic level of comfort and dignity for their inmates. Without that, even the most delicious of graham-cracker cheesecakes can’t make prison conditions humane.

I would imagine that anything like a cup that goes inside you, would be considered a place for inmates the hide contraband that would be out. I have been an inmate in more than a few facilities, federal and state, I’m ashamed to say, but yes the conditions are absolutely atrocious. for myself being a woman that has really never wornon anything but , making a switch to pads was absolutely dehumanizing being forced to sit in your own blood and not even have enough to go around was awful. worst part was is I had plenty of money in my commissary account but was not offered an option of buying pads or tampons. it was just not something that was offered on the commissary menu you were forced to deal with what they would give you which was awkward to having to ask a male officer for more pads having to tell him that your flow was heavy was embarrassing to say the least because they would ask why you need more. something really has to be done about the conditions that females face when they are incarcerated. another big issue was that you were only given one set of clothing to wear for 3 days in a row. and you’re not getting underwear to stick the pad to. Underwear also has to be bought and like they said it takes over a week just to order anything. many women are coming off of birth control and things of that nature and are having terrible night sweats and they have to walk around with wet clothing. and not to mention your hair is always wet as well your towel that they give you is paper thin and of course there’s no blow dryers so they parade you into court with wet hair bleeding all over yourself usually and of course no bra either it’s humiliating!! needless to say the men do not go through any of these tortured.

I think that each woman and girl in prison should get one box of pads and one box of tampons each month. If they have extra money, they can buy more, but nobody should have to be leaking all over the place. That would be totes gross and probably not very comfy.

Does this seem completely ridiculous to anyone else? How is it that hygienic needs can be considered luxuries? I’m sorry, but three pads would last me less than one day. What are these women supposed to do if they have no commissary money, no outside support?

This is an outrage. Something has to be done! How can people like myself help out with this cause? What can we do to ensure that women–criminals or not–are treated like human beings?

If I were a woman, I’d try to starve. A little constant hunger will lead to a stop of menstruation. So, it’s like a natural birth control or menstruation control by means of hunger. Another thing is if they all menstruate , and menstruate enough that 3 pads is never enough – it’s a fact that they are well fed. I heard men in prison all lose weight – not enough food to eat. The prison could give less food – save money on that – and use the extra money for pads. But then, they would probably not need as many pads if they ate much less……….. When I went to the army training, my period stop altogether for 3 months…… But, being a woman, I know that it’s horrible not to be able to be clean – it’s a perfect way to get an infection. But I heard that that’s what prison is for – it’s one of the many things that are inhumane there. Some other things could be worse: for example, a few people can attack one person and beat that person to the point of passing out and being half-dead and injured permanently – in those situations, nobody would help the victim. If somebody beats you to death – you left there to die alone like a beggar in your own piss. Some other unhealthy things that happen in prison: severe cold temperature and no heating and no blankets are given – people sleep on the cold floor and get bronchitis, and nobody cares. The whole system is designed to treat people inhumanly over there as those people are not considered people – they are criminals and not people. So, it’s not like there’s a supportive government system that we have in a regular society.

I have never heard of something so ridiculous as to punish a woman for having a period. For all the ridiculous things that are funded by the prisons and our government, a woman’s personal hygiene should not be an option, it should be a given. Women prisoners should not have to pay for their own tampons, and should not have them rationed. They should be readily available, and supplied free. Male prisoners are not charged for their toilet paper, and don’t have to go without wiping their butt. Why should a woman have to wear a feminine product longer that it should be safely worn, or go without because it’s not provided? It just goes to show the discrimination of women at every level. Even when she has had her rights taken away from her by the state, she still isn’t treated equally to a male prisoner.

This is outrageous. The markup for pads and tampons for women with the least ability to pay even the retail cost is pure greed. I understand that resources for correctional facilities are limited, and that hundreds of women menstruating (especially at the same time) could become financially prohibitive, but it’s a medical/scientific fact that women menstruate and that women tend to cycle together when in close proximity. Ignoring it is like ignoring the fact that you need water to live.

I’m reminded of the Stanford prison experiment. To treat prisoners like animals will almost ensure that they act as such. And, as the post mentions, it creates tension among inmates. While many other cultures exist comfortably without disposable feminine hygiene products, it is something that has become a basic comfort in American women’s lives.

I wonder if Luna Pads or Diva Cup would consider donating to women’s prisons, and if that wouldn’t ease some of the tensions and discomfort over the issue of disposable feminine hygiene products.

Do you think if someone donated $1,000 in pads and tampons to a prison, do you think the guards (male) would pass them out to the female inmates? I highly doubt it. I think the guards need to be treated the exact same way they treat the women. Have the guards go into prison for three months and I’d love to see how they feel at the end of three months. Policy change needs to happen in the United States. There needs to be macro level policy change across the board for all states and the American people need to start changing the way they look at women. Some people can’t believe that there are women that live with a family member and that woman has only food stamps and can’t afford $5 a month for pads. This has happened to me when I was panhandling for toilet paper and a man asked me if I needed food. I told him “No, I need pads can you help me?” He didn’t know what to say. For all men reading this right now, please think of your mother that gave birth to you. You may not have a sister and you may not have a niece or a daughter, but you have a mother. Every time you look at a woman you should think something like “I hope that woman has the feminine hygiene she needs each month so she can live a decent life and not have to beg for pads”. The male gender (on average) just does not understand what it is like to be a woman. This needs to change.

Maya, Our negligence and mistreatment of people behind bars in this country is a disgrace. For women to have to buy their hygience products is wrong on so many levels. As Alexandra and Danielle suggest, we should donate or pressur the manufacturers of sanitary products to donate supplies to women who are incarcerated. It may benefit the companies by developing brand loyalty in the women who will buy them after they’re released.

I have to say that this is absolutely disgusting and inhumane. Tampons and pads aren’t some kind of luxury, they are a necessity. The penal system is so worried about cost why don’t they see if women are interested Diva cups and reusable cloth pads that you can wash out. These are good alternatives that save money however, no matter the reason these women should not be denied sanitary products.

I agree that reusable products should be explored if they are worried about costs. Of course, since men are generally in charge of this stuff, I doubt they even know of their existence. There is often reluctance about these products by the general public at first (that unnecessary ew reaction) but it sounds like these women would be up for anything other than what they have.

Do you want to know what I feel is really cruel and inhumane? Enduring the same conditions you describe, except YOU YOURSELF are the one responsible for buying YOUR OWN feminine products and you can't afford them. Guess what?? When you're a poor college student on the run and you get your period in between classes, but you have to go to your job so you can afford your tuition and you don't want to be late? You know what you do? You hope and pray you come upon a bathroom with some toilet paper in it, so you can stick it in your underwear and go to work.

Get a clue! Get a life! Stop blaming other people because there are not enough tampons for you. Guess you should have thought about that when you started menstruating….Oh, and breaking the law.

more than half of women behind bars… are there because their boyfriend was guilty of a crime and they just didn’t do anything about it. most of them actually did not commit the crime themselves. the rest of the women usually suffer from somekind mental illness or drug addiction which are both diseases you ignorant woman!!

Good point. I was always fortunate enough to have a family that could pay for everything for me but I am 26 now and having to pay for things on my own. I do not have a job because I am getting a higher education. I have my BA but I want to get into the ranks as an EMS provider so I quit my job to become a paramedic.

Let’s see, I maxed out my credit card because of school books and tuition and I don’t have enough to pay for this summers tuition. My card needs to get paid soon or else I’m screwed! I just got my period and fortunately I have enough products but what happens next month when it runs out? I wish I could get 3-5 free pads a month. That would save tons of money!

Prisoners can work too. They can get a job within the facility to pay for their supplies like the rest of us. They can also use toilet paper like the rest of women do when we are out in public and don’t have pads or tampons on us.

We just do what we have to do when not supplied at our moment of need. Why is it fair for prisoners to get supplies for free and as much as they need/want when me, as a hard working student can’t get them for free? Not fair!

Did you not read the full article? There are some institutions where they are not offered pads/tampons on their commissary, and most prisons regulate the amount of toilet paper a woman has per month. While you or I can stop in a public restroom or at the restroom at work/school to use the toilet paper if we desperately need a pad but have no access, these women are not so fortunate as to have unlimited access to toilet paper.

Furthermore, prisoners don’t get them as much as they need. If a woman has a heavy flow, she has the same amount as the woman who has a light flow. A chain is only as strong as the weakest links; society is only as well off as its lesser people. We must care for the people who have landed themselves in trouble. If society treats them ill, they’ll only come out and act out of line again later on.

Well said Mo, some folks on here have no idea what the real issue is here. Here is a scenario that hopefully some folks can understand. There is a woman in prison who got there by defending herself against an abusive/boyfriend or husband. So because she defended herself she ended up in prison. So we are to tell this woman, we are sorry but because you decided to defend yourself you are now going to prison because you got the uppers and and killed him before he got a chance to kill you. Because you are a killer you do not deserve to have proper feminine products needed. We do not care if you have a heavy flow, you must suffer. Some of the folks on this blog are inhumane.

I AM SHOCKED BY THE COLD HEARTED WOMAN ABOVE ME!!! SHAME ON YOU!!! I’ve never been to prison but I don’t care who you are… it is inhumane to allow someone to sit around and bleed all over the place simply bc they have a period. The men can’t be punished in this manner so it is not fair or equal treatment. Its not healthy for the OTHER inmates that have to be around that person either. Blood can contain diseases!!! And to all the ones complaining “they wish they got free stuff”…. Well go to jail and get all those “freebies” you think they get. Are you freaking kidding me???? FREE? No sweetheart nothing in there is free. You are charged for TRIPLE everything…. I KNOW bc I have sent plenty of money to help pay for these “luxuries” to my ex. And you wanna complain they get “free” stuff? Its not an Ipsy goody bag!!! It is PADS to soak up blood that is running out of your body!!! THEY SHOULD GIVE THEM TO YOU to avoid ruining the uniforms that I am sure would cost tax payers a lot more cash than PADS!!! Thier punishments are – sleeping in OVERCROWDED cells and sometimes on a cold floor, being confined to a cell with NO luxuries 24-6. You get a state mandated 30 minutes to an hour outside, except on holidays ONLY IF WEATHER PERMITS. NO WAY of touching your children or even talking to them if they are too poor to visit, too buy stamps, or to take a 3 dollar call that last a whole 5 minutes. Serious ladies we should stick together, criminal or not, they don’t deserve to sit and bleed all over themeself and the smell would be unbelievable and so unfair for the other ladies in there as well. I am beyond porr myself but you are smart enough to be in college, or get a BA, etc etc, then you are smart enough to know that some people really can’t do better. Its horrible for all of you to judge the ones you don’t know. I mean really why don’t we start feeding them ground up leftovers so we don’t waste money on “Free” food??? Make them get on all fours and eat out of recycled bowls on the ground while we are at it? Make them all stand in lines against the wall weekly for a good hosing down to save on water too? Forget uniforms!!! Make EVERYBODY stand around naked and NO HYGIENE PRODUCTS AT ALL!! There is a reason this is USA…. we treat our citizens, criminal or not, with respect as human beings. Man I hope my well being is NEVER left in your hands as a health care provider!!

i think it is wrong on so many levels. our president thinks waterboarding is cruel and unusaul punishment to do to a terrorist it is way beyond cruel and unusual punishment to deny women or men hygene products. you would think that the health board would not allow this but they do. i was denied a pad or a tampon in jail and underwear because i was on suicide watch i am so mad and desturb i couldnot believe that they could treat me like that.that kind of treatment would cause anyone to want to commit suicide. i guess if i was a terrorist i would have been treated more humane thanks to our president. but im not im an american citizen and got treated worse than most people would treat their animals.

Wow… 3-5 pads for your ENTIRE period? Sometimes mine lasts for close to two weeks. Mind you, this is because I have ovarian cysts, but still. I can go through 3 pads in a single DAY of that because I bleed so heavily. This is completely imhumane! I know they are prisoners, but this is for basic sanitation.

The ACLU should be involved with this. Having limited sanitary products creates a health hazard. Imagine stained and smelly clothes, chairs, and beds. Whose bright idea was this? Gee, I wonder if they deny toothbrushes? Oh wait – MEN use those, so I guess not.

just think about not having any underwear to put a pad on and they keep it so cold and your only alloud one sheet one very thin blanket they give no shampo just plain soap and a very little barbar comb if you have long hair its hell trying to get a comb threw it so you just pass washing your hair you still have to take a shower with one little towel your so cold when you get out and make one statment you wish you were dead oh my God they take you strip you down but ass naked they put a wrap around turtle suit on you and your in one open cell all lit up windows all over everyone can see every move you make then you really wish you were dead

I mean…they broke the law and should be allowed to get it for free…i’m a poor college student struggling to eat daily, and afford these expensive feminine products…I should get them for free too! Yeah?

I did not choose to break the law my boyfriend broke the law and I had no idea even what money laundering meant but I still spent 6 months trying to prove it. Ahhh, ignorance is bliss isn’t it….not really

Get a clue. You are not behind bars and have the freedom to go to the nearest Walmart and buy the cheap store-brand products if you need to. They are completely reliant on the system. What else do you suggest should be denied the prisoners? Should they be put in cages without toilets and be forced to live like pigs in their own filth? That would be unamerican, so thank God we have checks in the system. They should not be deliberately humiliated for being women by being denied basic menstrual hygiene products.

For someone who says she is in college, you have A LOT to learn about how The System works. There are more than a few people in prison who are INNOCENT, and I don’t mean NOT GUILTY. Many times their only crime was being poor or having darker skin. Others are there because they were mistakenly identified by an eye witness or because of an overzealous prosecutor. Understand this, the police lie and D.A.s need to get re-elected. Hope you never are in the wrong place at the wrong time and find yourself on the wrong side of the bars with C.O.s as spiteful as you.

Prison is cruel in many ways. Like I said before, having period and mess is not as painful as having a chance to be beaten up to near death, or hurled with force with your face in your own feces and then being laughed at, having bronchitis and breathing problems is painful as hell….. The deeper question comes to mind: what’s the purpose of prison at all? To protect average person from danger. Some people are truly dangerous and cause much trouble in society. Yet, how should we treat those troubled people? Confine them? – yes. Feed them? – yes. Protect them? – it seem “no”. Nobody want to protect them – protect/care for basic safety/hygiene. Why? Why confine them? – will that change them into good decent people? What’s the purpose of confining????? The purpose is like a bandage – bandage covers up a cut/pimple. But it does not cure it or eliminate. A cut heals, a pimple drains by themselves. A prison – like a bandage – it covers up a “pimple”(that “sick” cell of society – that criminal person) – but a criminal won’t “heal” into a good healthy “person” on its own like a cut or pimple. You confine a criminal, keep it in inhumane conditions – and guess what will happen to that criminal???? She(or he) will remain just criminal if not more criminal after time………So, what’s the purpose of prison – simple to cover up “bad” people from society – but not cure the real problem. It’s in a way a wasteful system. Plenty of resources are used for maintaining a prison population – only for the sake of maintaining it in perpetual confinement. The system’s only goal is nothing BUT to keep them captive. May be, we could use them for the benefit of society – construction workers+ give them pay for work. May be, we could make a prison – a place of moral development/evolution – give people a chance to grow and self-improve, teach them to work and earn money, understand their sins and change into better people. Ultimately, only God, or the universe makes final judgments and decisions for every single living being on this planet. And a prison can never take the place of god and decide in place of god what to do with the existence of any living being: whether to keep it alive simply for the sake existing, or terminate its freedom or existence altogether. I wish, prison was strict but more like a monastery – a place where people could be educated about society, morals, make some “reparations”/”work” for free in order to repay their sins to society, perhaps. Just keeping “dangerous” people indefinitely captive with no other goal than to just keep keeping them confined is not a very morally good thing in itself. So, I don’t even expect anything good going in there if the system itself is inherently immoral.

you are a free person you have the luxury of being able to borrow , or go to the church for help or get the food pantry they give out things like, pads, toilet paper, and all sorts of hygiene products I think you I need to learn how to speak up in your community and get a little assistance these women can’t get anything from anywhere they are prisoners they have no options whatsoever. you also have the option of doing a small yard sale if you need a couple extra dollars free people have many many options you’re not talking about people with options you’re talking about women that are just forced to live in this way. your situation is easily avoidable. you really need to explore your options and start getting out into the community.

I think that it is disgusting that they have to buy their own or use 3 for 1 period!
Women can’t help that they get their period!
Just because they may have made mistakes doesn’t mean that they aren’t allowed Famine products!
I think the jail should prove women with enough pads, tampons, or whatever they need to last them their period & so they can maintain a minimal amount of personal hygiene!

It’s important to create awareness to this problem by helping women lead healthier lives by having access to feminine care products in a dignified manner-even if they are incarcerated. Since most school and community groups are reluctant to collect these much-needed products businesswoman Ann Germanow, owner of The Scensible Source Company, originated Pad Party. Pad Parties are social events for women-only and the entrance fee is a box (or two) of feminine care products that are then donated to organizations for distribution to women/girls in need. Additionally simply add a feminine care collection drive to an existing charitable event, book club meeting, educational workshop or social occasion, will help make a big difference!

Buy pads and tampons? Give me a break! I am sure this rule was made by A MAN who never had cramps or heavy bleeding.
Do they even know what a heavy bleeding is?
I am totally against luxury in prison and I don’t think the tax payers should spend unneccessary money since it’s not a hotel, but pads?! Are you serious?! Toilet paper serving as pads?! Do THE MEN who made that rule even know what a period is? Hell! I hope they get painkillers for the cramps too because I know how terrible cramps can be! Why don’t they forbid pillows and blankets as well?
Source: I am a WOMAN and I’ve been having periods for 18 years.

On and off over the past 6 years I’ve used tp as pads. Tampons are pretty much an unaffordable luxury for me. It’s the way it is, but at least I get to wash regularly enough so it isn’t quite so bad. 🙁

I think that the women in prison should at least be allowed some unlimited disposable pads because menstrual blood in that facility going around free bleeding can cause diseases. I don’t think they should have luxuries but menstrual products are a need, not a luxury. No woman should be punished for being a woman.

I suggest taxing other items on the commissary, men and women’s prison, say five or ten cents to fund feminine care products. Like soda, candy bars or items like that, which are luxuries. This way women could get pads, underwear, soap, etc. Things that are essential, not luxuries.

“Tampons are $5.00 and pads are around $3.20,” Vicki Rosepiler, a prisoner at Danbury Federal Medium Security Prison, told me. “You can get five free pads per week and three rolls of toilet paper, but that is the extent of help with hygiene. This was not the case 10 years ago.”

No such thing as a medium security female federal prison.

“At some facilities, there are no giveaways at all. “The women have to buy their personal hygiene,” Patricia Williams in the Victorville, California federal prison to me. “If you don’t have any funds… Oh wellllllllll.”

Also the federal prisons issue these items, it is required by law they issue hygiene items. You have to get up at wait in line at the laundry at 0600 once a month but you will get them.

I feel so sad after reading both this article and some of the comments. I am a poor woman. I was a poor college student. I have uterin fibroids which make my period so heavy, it lasts for seven days and five of those days I usually bleed through both an overnight pad and an ultra absorbency tampon within an hour or two.
I have been in situations where I have compromised my morals because of poverty. I have had embarrassing period stain accidents. I can empathize with any person who is in pain. Feeling dirty is painful. Feeling embarrassed is painful.
I feel sad for those women who commented that they would like free stuff and made it seem as if the female prisoners are there for the free stuff. I feel sad for them because they think it is OK to make someone feel less than human simply because they think they are better than them. Regardless of what crime was committed, we as a society are more criminal to allow and administer pain and suffering to prisoners because it makes us feel better.
Shame on our society.

I just read this article five years after it was published. TODAY I am going to call the county jail and ask to speak with the chaplain or a nurse, and find out the situation there and ask how I can help. I would challenge everyone concerned about to issue the do the same.

5 years after the article was published… The same is still going on… I know first hand… My 27 year old daughter , a heroin addict, was incarcerated and awaiting her hearing in the county jail… Not only are we dealing with the after math of the crime she committed while under the influence… But are trying to make sense of the horrendous deplorable Inhumane conditions she finds herself in… Her comments to me “as if I don’t hate myself enough already, I feel like an animal “. She called me today to ask if I would put 20.00 in another jail mates account. My daughter started her period. NO free pads….75 cents per pad. 2 free rolls of TP per week. I had to put the money on her jail mates account because my daughter had already gotten commissary items for the week. Her period came two weeks earlier than expected. She was unprepared. I have been in a perpetual state of shock and despair over it all.